Jeremy Sacco
BuyerZone.com Editorial Staff

You've got a meeting you need to run. The participants are scattered across the country, and no one can spare the time to travel. Thanks to falling prices and improving technology, the solution is obvious: a web conference. Or a webcast. Wait, maybe it's video conferencing. OK, perhaps it's not that obvious after all. Here's a guide to the various ways you can use technology to bring far-flung groups of people together.

Get the right features

When choosing a webinar service, make sure you get one that supports the software you want to use to share documents. Almost all support PowerPoint - but if you want to be able to share other applications, check with your vendor before you commit to a service.

Web conferencing and video conferencing

The two main choices for sharing visuals and audio with a remote group of meeting participants are web conferencing and video conferencing. While their usage can overlap considerably, it's fairly easy to decide which you should be shopping for.

Simply ask yourself what you expect to see. If you're looking for something that will let everyone see a presentation or other document on their computer screen, with perhaps a little video window in the corner showing the person speaking, you're looking for web conferencing. If you want to hold a meeting where several people in one room can see and talk to multiple people in another room, and where the presentation is more like TV, video conferencing is the way to go.

The confusion stems from the fact that web conferencing can include video, and video conferencing can be used to share documents. However the distinction lies in the emphasis. Web conferences are about the content of a presentation, sometimes with a side helping of video. Video conferences are more focused on images and interaction between participants.

Web conferences are popular for software training, product demos, and analyzing reports or data; video conferences are better suited for board meetings, depositions, and negotiations. Video conferencing is typically more expensive and can require specialized equipment.

Two more specific types of web conference are also commonly mixed up with these terms: "webinars" and "webcasts."

Webinar

A webinar is basically a web conference with audio. More specifically, it usually refers to a class or workshop that the presenter charges admission to attend, but employee training sessions are often called webinars as well. They are commonly recorded for future use or reference.

Note that many web conferences do not include audio - and even for those that do, it's often cheaper, easier, and more effective to use a standard telephone conference call for the audio portion of a meeting. In the case of a webinar, this is almost always an operator-assisted conference call.

Webcast

Just like communications that are broadcast, a webcast usually involves one-to-many communications. A webcast can be primarily video or a presentation, but typically is shown to an audience of hundreds. Viewers may be offered the opportunity to submit questions, but the webcast does not include back-and-forth discussion. Webcasts can be presented live or pre-recorded. Per participant, they are more expensive than other types of web conference at the low end, but the per user price drops drastically as the viewer numbers climb into the hundreds or thousands.